Fox's Wings
by Liara-Shadowsong
Summary: The sequel to my oneshot, Fox Angel. Sasuke chose to remain in Konoha, instead of betraying it as he did in canon. What now? The misadventures of an intact Team 7, an on duty Fox Angel, and those unfortunate enough to interact with them. On hiatus for now, may or may not be continued in the future.
1. Unbroken

FOX'S WINGS

O O O

Disclaimer: Masashi Kurumada owns the series Naruto. Check my author profile; I'm a female American college student, not a male Japanese manga-ka. Hence, I don't own the series, this being only a work of fanfiction.

Summary: In this multi-chapter sequel to my one-shot "Fox Angel", Sasuke chose to remain in Konoha through the night he left for Orochimaru in canon. What now? The adventures and misadventures of an intact Team 7, an on-duty Fox Angel, and all those unfortunate enough to interact with them.

Author notes: You read right, this is a sequel. For those of you who don't like sequels, just keep in mind that the first story is only one chapter, but that you'll be lost here after a little while if you don't read it. (If you reviewed or gave another indication of having read the first story, you should have received a PM with a link to my submission of a Yoko sketch dump. Let me know if I forgot.) Please consider reviewing at some point, as it helps motivate me to write when I have the time to do so. Enjoy.

O O O

Fox's Wings

By Kawaii Chibi Shun

Chapter One: Unbroken

O O O

It was a beautiful morning in the ninja village of Konoha. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, Hatake Kakashi was on time to Team Seven's morning training...

"What! Who are you, and what have you done with Kakashi-sensei?"

"Ah, but Sakura, I am Kakashi. Even I can be early if I have a good reason." A silence pervaded the clearing for a minute, punctuated only by the chirping of some all too convenient crickets, until another member of the team arrived, the one that the other two had arrived early to wait for, in fact.

Sasuke's only acknowledgement of the presences of the other two members of his team was a monosyllabic grunt that may have been some form of "Hello" or "Good morning" ... or he could just have been clearing his throat.

He leaned against the handrail of the bridge the team always met at to wait for his last teammate as the one already present greeted him.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cheerfully chirped to the Uchiha.

He made no indication that he had heard his pink-haired teammate. Before Sakura could speak any further, the final team member arrived.

Naruto spouted off an overly cheerful greeting to Sakura not dissimilar to that which Sakura had given Sasuke not a minute before, then proceeded to also greet the rest of the team, albeit in a more sedate and normal (for most people) fashion.

"Naruto, are you feeling alright? You haven't even tried to insult Sasuke yet." Kakashi moved to check the blond's temperature, genuinely worried that there was something seriously wrong with him. Naruto just "Hmph"ed and crossed his arms.

"What's going on, anyways? So I decided to try not to provoke the bastard today, something wrong with that?"

Kakashi reached down and ruffled Naruto's already messy hair. "It's not something for you to worry about, okay Naruto?"

He sputtered and yelled about not telling him important things and not to mess with his hair, interrupted only by Kakashi announcing the schedule of practice for the day.

And thus things returned to normal. Well, as normal as things ever got for a team of ninjas, especially one with students who were living demon containers, a top-ranked assassin filling the role of teacher, and a borderline-MPD healer-in-training rounding them out.

Yes, indeed, everything was normal again.

O

O

coughcrappyprologuecoughcough

I've been trying to get together an introductory chapter that can bridge Fox Angel and its sequel together forever, it seems. I meant to have the start of this story up during the summer, and I probably would have if I hadn't decided to enter that theme contest. I had fun, and did somehow win it, though. Getting settled back into my new college classes didn't exactly make for a great deal of writing time, either. In addition, this part has been ready for a while, but considering that my real life has been a mess lately... be glad that I'm posting at all.

So, just to forewarn, chapters are going to be added pretty sporadically. If I go over a month without an update (or something else being added to my story list out of random inspiration) feel free to PM or email me a reminder. Also, I apologize for the shortness of this part.

As you can see, Team Seven is still intact beyond when they were in canon, so this is officially a divergent AU. And it you're wondering where Yoko went to, or where "she" came from... I'm afraid you'll have to wait just a little longer.


	2. Moving Forward

Author's notes:

If you left a signed review or an anonymous one with an email address, I have probably (read: hopefully) already replied. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in a review, a PM, or an email to KawaiiChibiShun(at)aim(dot)com. I would like to take this time to address a few questions from past reviews from this story and its prequel.

Yoko is only an alternate identity for Naruto to help people. "She" helps stop them from making a stupid decision in an emergency. Then, if there is an ongoing problem, they seek help independently. Naruto is not some sort of super genius, nor is he incredibly powerful here. The Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu) has shown some evidence in canon of being a solid form of Henge (Transformation), so I went from there. I also do not picture the teleportation jutsu as being particularly high level when used for fairly short distances, just a more powerful derivative of substitution using air from the destination instead of a physical object.

It is unlikely that this story will ever contain a SasuNaru pairing as such. Sasuke is too emotionally constipated to be romantically involved with anyone at this point, regardless of whatever the hell his sexual orientation would turn out to be. I may, however, involve in the plot a slight unrequited crush on the part of Sasuke upon the unbeknownst to him nonexistent entity called Yoko. But please don't make pairing requests, all right?

Disclaimer: The Naruto series is the intellectual property of Masashi Kishimoto, this being merely a work of fanfiction.

O

Chapter Two: Moving Forward

"Remind me again why I have to do this, Sensei." The boy wasn't whining, really he wasn't. He just happened to not want to have to tell anyone so much about himself as these sessions demanded.

Kakashi didn't even pretend to be anything less than serious as he replied, "Because, Sasuke, Yoko's job is just to keep you from doing something foolish initially. After that, it by no means indicates that you're fine and able to be left alone. If it's something serious, you're supposed to see a professional. Most people just don't say that Yoko is the reason that they finally bothered to ask for professional help, because that would mean they hadn't figured out something was wrong on their own. Now, either you can talk to me, or we can go find a nice doctor who will have you lay on a couch in their office and talk about your childhood."

"...Fine. I won't run off. So, what's the deal with this 'Yoko' anyways?"

"Near as I can tell, she just appeared out of the blue one day and forcibly dragged a ninja who was planning to turn rogue for less-than-applicable reasons back through the gates and to the nearest shrink's office before informing Sarutobi-sama. In his defense as a shinobi, she caught him off guard because she was just a kid and dressed like a civilian, and kicked him in the balls before dragging him downhill by his hair."

Sasuke just winced.

"Yep." Kakashi seemed far too cheerful about the entire thing, in his opinion. "Basically, she just appears and disappears from notice whenever it suits her, and tries to keep ninjas from making decisions that don't properly demonstrate their level of sanity or intelligence. Then she turns them over to the proper professionals, if further intervention is needed, or just checks up on them from time to time if it seems to be a one time thing."

"Hell, I've heard rumors of her being bored enough to wander between restaurants or food stands, giving romantic advice. ...Really grateful not to be one of those people, come to think of it."

A groan of annoyance from the Uchiha was the only response as Kakashi-no-Sharingan continued rambling, flipping through the pages of his questionable book as he tried to convince the younger ninja to open up and actually talk.

O

"Good morning, kids!"

The young ninjas in question merely groaned in annoyance, some more obviously than others. It was far too early in the morning for training as far as they were concerned.

"We are going to have a new mission soon. It's a C-rank bodyguard mission. It's not too high-risk, so there shouldn't be any serious complications. The only thing is... well, that's not terribly important right now, just keep in mind that it's going to be a bit undercover."

Naruto moaned, "Not so loud, Kakashi-sensei. It's six in the morning!"

Kakashi only raised his sole visible eyebrow. Clapping his hands together, he announced, "We're going to be working on some new jutsus today! I'll work individually with each of you for a bit while the other two spar, okay?"

With Sakura, he worked on a basic genjutsu, to give her a less direct method of attack than the fighting style she was learning from Tsunade while still complementing the training for her medical ninjutsu.

Sasuke was given assistance with a lightning-type jutsu that he had started with Kakashi previously, but never mastered as he wasn't permitted to use his Sharingan to help his progress.

Naruto desperately needed offensive jutsu aside from Rasengan, so Kakashi set to teaching him a mid-level water jutsu that required a lot of chakra but not incredibly fine-tuned chakra control.

Still, everyone was distracted. Sasuke was preoccupied with the words of both his sensei and the mysterious girl Yoko. Sakura worried over her teammates and their odd behavior, especially Sasuke's almost-betrayal. Kakashi relied on every bit of training he possessed to concentrate properly despite the prospect of teaching two Jinchuuriki at once, especially given all of his students' lack of sense from time to time, and always at the most inopportune times.

Naruto was lucky no one else was in any fit state to notice the way that his eyes kept straying to Sasuke, then Kakashi, and back to Sasuke, as though he expected a fight to break out at any second or Sasuke to make a run for it. He wasn't supposed to know what had happened yet.

O

Kakashi became aware of someone outside the window of his apartment's kitchen, followed a few moments later by knocking on it as he snuck in that general direction with a kunai in hand.

He wasn't terribly surprised by the young girl perched on his windowsill. "Yoko," he addressed her, opening the window and allowing her to climb through.

She grinned widely, absently brushing the dust from her red pleated skirt. "Hello, Kakashi-san. I wanted to see how you were doing. I figured you might like someone to talk to, since you aren't seeing a real therapist anymore. How did you convince the Hokage to let your appointments stop, anyways?"

She received a one-eyed glare in reply.

"_I'm_ fine. Missions are going well, the brats are as annoying as always, same old same old. This is about Sasuke, isn't it?"

A sheepish grin. "You caught me. I take it he actually came by like I told him to? So...?"

"He's an emotional mess. To try and respect his privacy, I won't say any more unless I have to, but it's the truth."

"Not likely to run off again any time soon, though?"

"Not unless the Akatsuki decides to come after him, too. Which is probably going to happen sooner or later, if recent events are any indication."

"Probably. But you'll be ready for that, won't you, 'Oh Great Kakashi of the Sharingan'?"

"I hate you a little bit sometimes, Yoko. But when the Akatsuki decides to attack, yes, I'll be ready for them." He sighed. "How can you stand doing what you do? I can barely handle my own problems, let alone anyone else's."

"A lot of experience, and someone to talk to about my own problems, of course. Now come on, I bet you haven't bothered to eat anything besides a field ration bar before training with your team, and it's lunchtime. I want either sushi or ramen, and I don't think I can find either in your apartment."

Kakashi allowed himself to be steered out the front door. He needed the motivation to go out and do things not related to his job sometimes.

O

A/N: I apologize for the wait between chapters. I've been very busy with things in real life, plus I got writer's block about three quarters of the way through this part. Hope you enjoy the chapter.


	3. Over Ramen

Disclaimer: Standard "I don't own, this is fanfiction, all credit for the original series goes to Kishimoto-sensei" goes here.

Author's Notes:

I'm terribly sorry about the amount of time between this chapter and the previous. I had a bad case of writer's block, plus college classes to deal with (both my second semester of the year, and a shorter summer term, during which I took a smaller number of lectures to ease my schedule later on). Then other school-related things during the summer interfered. And my only inspiration all summer has been for one-shots for -Man. So yes, I wrote this in tiny chunks with little inspiration, hence the hiatus it was on.

Please note that how I refer to Naruto will depend entirely on what form he is wearing at the time. Essentially, Naruto is Naruto, except when he's Yoko – at which point he's referred to using that name and feminine pronouns, for the sake of avoiding confusion, except within his own mind.

I would also like to take this opportunity to inform you that my previous multi-chapter story, "Sea Serpent", while not a formal prequel to this and "Fox Angel", takes place within the same universe of sorts. There is a long story behind this, but the short version is that you don't have to read it to enjoy this story, but it gives background on other additions I have made to some vague parts of canon, specifically some back-story on Umino Iruka and Mitarashi Anko. Yes, I wrote that one quite some time ago, before starting "Fox's Wings", but I didn't realize I'd placed it in the same universe until long after it was dome and I was writing this chapter.

O

Chapter Three: Over Ramen

O

Sasuke Uchiha was having a good day. Good for him, anyways. His team had a much-needed day off from training, which even someone as vengeance-minded as he appreciated from time to time, especially given recent events. There hadn't been any fangirls trailing after him in several days. Somehow, he'd managed to not wake up on the wrong side of the bed for once, even.

Then he saw his instructor being dragged down the street by a happily grinning blond. After a moment's confusion where his subconscious imagined his teammate as the dragger, he quickly realized just who was happily pulling Kakashi in the general direction of a street filled with small restaurants.

Yoko. For all that she was wearing sunshine-yellow and not red-orange with navy, it could be nobody else, as far as Sasuke was concerned.

Ten minutes later, he found himself sitting upon a stool at a ramen shop next to his teacher, with the mysterious "fox angel" seated to the other man's opposite side, pondering the menu. Apparently, the older man was buying, though Sasuke wondered how exactly he was expecting to hide his face with someone sitting to either side and the staff of the shop in front of him. That is, if he even cared about hiding his face from view, as opposed to just enjoying annoying his team.

Ramen soup reminded Sasuke rather unpleasantly of the loud mouth of his blond teammate, so with a small sigh of exasperation, he ordered a dish of the steamed pork gyoza dumplings and fried rice that the restaurant served as one of its non-ramen dishes. It didn't seem like he was going to get away now, so he may as well take advantage of his sensei's courtesy in paying for the meal, though he was stuck with one of the people he least wanted to see at the moment – namely Yoko, who had seen him at one of his lowest points and lived to tell the tale.

Kakashi had lapsed back into reading one of his ... books ... while Sasuke was lost in thought, and Yoko had taken it upon herself to try to get his attention long enough for the silver-haired ninja to order his meal. She was kneeling on her stool to get a little extra height, and waving one hand in the man's face.

"Kakashi-san. Kakashi-san, you have to order. Oi, Hatake!"

With a huff, Yoko dropped back onto her seat, and ordered a bowl of simple shio ramen for each of them, asking for extra chicken on hers, and, in what seemed to be mild spitefulness, extra vegetables on his. Apparently, she rarely if ever bothered to fully put on the aloof and sage-like mask that she'd used when speaking with Sasuke when she was spending time in public, though she was mainly speaking politely and carefully. She also apparently didn't like vegetables very much, which Sasuke found slightly amusing for some reason.

When the food arrived, Kakashi showed none of the unwillingness to show his face that he had when Team Seven was trying their hardest to see what lay beneath the mask. He simply pulled down the cloth and began eating, as Sasuke gaped at him in shock and Yoko giggled softly into her ramen.

Kakashi looked up from his meal, and gave one of his infamous eye-smiles, this time accompanied by the rest of his face. The scar from his Sharingan ran most of the way down his cheek, but otherwise his face was not unattractive, if a bit plain. At the very least, he was in no way seriously disfigured, as had been one suspicion for the reason why he wore the mask. "Surprised, Sasuke?"

"I... but you... Naruto said... and Sakura..." Sasuke sputtered, attempting to convey his message about the team's unofficial 'mission' to see the face behind their sensei's mask, and failing miserably.

"It was just so funny to watch you kids try and outwit me to see my face. You should have seen the looks on your faces every time something went wrong." Kakashi chuckled and resumed eating, mindless of the fact that his student seemed ready to try to stab him to death with a pair of disposable chopsticks.

Yoko just continued to snicker softly, though when Sasuke's hand started twitching as though to grab a weapon, she flicked the wrapper from her chopsticks at his forehead to break his concentration. The rest of the meal was amicable, once everyone calmed down, at least.

As he tried to make his escape while Kakashi and Yoko exchanged their goodbyes, the young ninja found himself grabbed by the shirt sleeve, a voice hissing in his ear, "We need to speak for a moment, Uchiha-san. Unless you want me following you until you cooperate, please stay for a few more minutes."

They walked slowly along a nearby street of small shops after Kakashi made his departure. Looking into the window of a weapons shop at the display of kunai, Yoko began speaking, softly and hesitantly, "Uchiha-san… I want you to answer me completely and truthfully… do you…"

'Aw, hell, forget the aloof and mysterious thing,' Naruto thought, 'I'm really not good at that bit, but I have to at least try for polite and slightly formal so Sasuke doesn't start suspecting anything.'

Yoko turned around to face the young Uchiha, beginning again in a louder and steadier voice, though still soft enough to be discreet and overall polite enough to mismatch completely with Naruto's usual speech pattern, "…Are you planning on running off still, or are you not? I believe I may be able to find ninjas who would be willing to teach you some of Orochimaru-no-Sannin's jutsus, if that is all you are after. They may know a better way to suppress the curse seal than Kakashi-san was able to perform previously, as well. If you try a stunt like that again, though… …I'll get Kakashi-san to drag your sorry ass off to Tsunade-sama's office. So, what will it be?"

Sasuke glared at the blond in front of him, though it seemed to be lacking… something. True anger behind it, perhaps. Or perhaps just enough force of will to intimidate properly.

He sighed. "I won't be going anywhere, Yoko. I'll find my own path to achieve my goals. Not… Itachi's," he continued, pausing as though unsure whether or not to call the man his brother, because that meant admitting that they were related, "and not Orochimaru's."

Yoko giggled, hiding her laughter discreetly behind one hand. The real reason for the falsely demure action, though, unbeknownst to Sasuke, was for Naruto to force himself to remember that he was playing a role, and it was not one that he could afford to slip up, especially when he was talking to someone that knew both the real him and the cute and wild, aloof but caring, utterly contradictory doll figure that he was playing at the time. "Too proud to ask for help, are we? I told you that I could find ninjas to teach you at least some of Orochimaru-no-Sannin's techniques, and I will tell you what you need to know, even if you are too proud to ask for it yourself." She wrote an address on a paper napkin from the restaurant with a pen borrowed from the clerk of a nearby fruit stand. "Ask for Mitarashi-san. And do try not to stare too rudely if someone else answers the door, Uchiha-san."

The pair had been drifting along the road as they spoke, and with that final word of advice, Yoko changed directions abruptly. When she was several feet further from Sasuke that before, and he realized that she was no longer beside him, Yoko turned and waved good-bye in a heinously cute manner, before skipping off and vanishing into a crowd on the main street.

Sasuke was left with only an address and a surname, but at least he had a way to learn some of the jutsus he could no longer get from Orochimaru, since he had lost his best, if not only, opportunity to search the man himself out.

Yoko, though, still had a few places to go before Naruto was to go home.

O

Okay, I'd intended for this to be significantly longer, with more scenes planned (including Sasuke eventually going to the address he was given, seeing where Naruto's female clothes come from, and likely another meeting of Team 7). However, if I kept putting off uploading in order to make the chapter as long as planned in my outline, it would never end up posted, because my outline would just keep getting longer. So, I'm very sorry that there was such a long hiatus for such a short chapter. However, I should actually have the fourth up in a reasonable amount of time now. I hope. Unless my college classes involve even more work than expected or I get writer's block again. Wish me luck!


	4. Sister

Disclaimer: If you haven't gotten the drill by now… that's pretty sad. I'm a poor college student, so there is no way I own the series Naruto. That would be Masashi Kishimoto. This is just a work of fanfiction.

Author's notes:

…I basically suck at the whole "(regular) updates during the school year" thing, don't I? My apologies. I'll see about making y'all some art to accompany the story, or maybe a comic version of "Fox Angel." If/when I get around to it, any art will be posted to my sparkly new DeviantArt account. My username there is Liara-Shadowsong, and I'll try add a link to my profile. But honestly? This really isn't even funny anymore; classes seem to have eaten my entire frigging life. Long story short: I got to write a bit during my winter break and my so-called spring break, but only just got around to finishing after classes let out for the summer. But never fear! I shan't abandon this story; I enjoy writing it too much for that. I'll just have to… dunno, stockpile a few extra chapters during the summer so I can update throughout the school year, or something.

Also, I potentially made a teeny tiny plot hole, mentioning a red dress with a pleated skirt on "Yoko" in chapter two, and then having Sasuke comment that "she" was wearing sunshine yellow in chapter three. I have changed the word 'dress' in two to 'skirt' and formally declare that Naruto had the terrible idea that morning to put on a bright yellow top, bright yellow shoes, and a red skirt when he dressed his Yoko form. It's a very Naruto thing to do, no? Sasuke just happened to ignore the slightly less blinding color of the skirt in favor of the obnoxiously neon shirt.

All right! On to the story!

O

Chapter Four: Sister

O

After leaving Sasuke, Yoko wove quickly among the crowd, trying to lose him. Her brief journey ended at a clothing shop catering to ninjas, for their on-duty and off-duty attire alike, with a section dedicated solely to costumes for undercover missions.

Waving energetically to the various sales associates, she made her way to the back storeroom, and greeted a young woman there, the kunoichi fiancé of the shop's owner. She was pretty enough, if not particularly noticeable, with short light brown hair and kind hazel eyes, and was still dressed in her plain and practical mission clothes.

"Anzu-chan! How are you?"

"Yoko? What are you doing here?" Anzu sighed and resigned herself to the question being pretty much rhetorical; there was no way Yoko could tell her much of anything. She knew that, and had long since accepted it. Still, she worried; what if the person behind the mask really was just a half-helpless ninja child with enough charisma to get people talking? What was her home situation like?

Anzu was snapped from her slightly distracted worrying by Yoko's reply. "I was nearby anyways, and just wanted to stop by to see you. Oh, and I've heard from a reliable source that the undercover mission your four-kunoichi team couldn't take because of scheduling conflicts has been picked up by a regular team who will likely be working under Kage Henge. You might want to warn Kazu that he'll be outfitting shapeshifted men for dresses before long, since the mission calls for four female roles, and the team will only have one or two women unless it's made from just the kunoichis of a couple of mixed-gender teams and not one team straight out." She giggled.

Poor men, Anzu thought. But then, ninjas had to get used to undercover work, and cross-dressing was a common enough requirement in these. At least it sounded like they'd mostly just have to fool civilians, though, since a relatively simple jutsu was going to be used to facilitate the task, and it wouldn't really be viable for an extended mission against enemy ninjas.

"Speaking of dresses, my dear fiancé has another design he couldn't find another ninja to try out. Too brightly colored, apparently. Personally, I think he's just so grateful for you filling in the non-combatant fifth role as my character's baby sister in that undercover reconnaissance mission, that he's going to keep making pretty clothes for you every now and again for a very long time."

She produced a bright green short-sleeved dress with a frothy layered skirt. It was promptly cooed over and swished about.

Naruto genuinely liked the dress; it was really bright and pretty, so it was the sort of thing he'd probably want to wear if he really was a girl and had a reason to wear a dress, though perhaps with a few less ribbons. At the same time, it was also something that he would never be caught dead in as it was if he wasn't playing Yoko, so it would help keep people from guessing that the two were the same.

O

Meanwhile, across Konoha, Sasuke had located the address he'd been given. It was a modest-sized house in a predominantly civilian neighborhood, with a small garden visible to the side filled with plants used by ninjas trained as medics. Not a civilian house after all, then, unless the owner was a merchant who sold the herbs to ninjas, and the garden seemed rather too small for that.

Sasuke hesitated at the front door, hand poised to knock. Windows were an acceptable entrance for ninjas visiting friends, but Sasuke didn't even know this Mitarashi. The name sounded familiar in a way that nagged at the back of his mind, but that didn't mean that it was even the same Mitarashi as the one whose identity kept eluding him.

Steeling himself for whatever may be waiting, Sasuke knocked a few times on the sturdy but kunai-scarred wooden door.

"Just a minute," came an oddly familiar voice.

The door opened, and Sasuke was faced with… Umino Iruka, his former teacher from the Ninja Academy.

"Erm… can I help you, Sasuke-kun?"

The boy, for his part, managed to not look as surprised as he felt. "I must have gone to the wrong address." As he turned to walk away, Iruka asked who he was looking for. "I was told to go to this address," he held out the scrap of paper, "and ask for Mitarashi."

Iruka double-checked the paper, and smiled. "Actually, Sasuke-kun, you're in the right place. I'll go get Anko. Would you like something to drink? I have juice and tea, besides plain water. No coffee, though, I'm afraid. We ran out yesterday, and haven't had a chance to buy more yet."

Sasuke just shook his head. Anko, eh? Could it be the same Mitarashi Anko who was a proctor at the Chuunin exam, he wondered, the surname finally clicking in his mind? It must be; the chances of two unrelated people with the same full name, even in somewhere the size of Konoha, were slim at best.

"Who's there, hon?" came a female voice from the next room. She didn't sound too worried, probably because there was no evidence of a fight beginning in the middle of the kitchen.

"A former student of mine who wants to speak with you, Anko," replied Iruka. Anko popped her head through the doorway connecting the kitchen to the small living room. Her purple hair was down, and she wasn't wearing her hitaiate, but Sasuke immediately recognized her as the half-mad examiner from the Forest of Death anyways.

Not long after, Iruka had to leave. Classes as such weren't meeting, as it was a weekend, but some of the teachers were holding an extra afternoon practice for some less-impressive-in-battle practical skills such as lock-picking and knot-tying. Iruka was leading the lock-picking review.

If Sasuke was scared of the idea of being left alone with Anko, he didn't show it. She offered for them to both join Iruka at the Academy, and Sasuke agreed on the grounds that they speak somewhere where the mini-ninjas wouldn't eavesdrop. He ... was just more comfortable with his former teacher there. Not that he was particularly fond of the man his teammate kept talking about, not at all.

So Sasuke found himself being led away somewhere else again. It seemed to be happening to him more and more often lately. He decided that if Naruto or Sakura ever tried to drag him off somewhere, said teammate would lose a hand in the process. Little did he know that the first had been the one to start the recent trend, albeit in disguise.

O

Far away, the organization known only as Akatsuki was plotting.

"Leader, we have located additional information on the one- and two-tailed Jinchuuriki. The one-tail is sealed in Gaara, the younger son of the late Kazekage. The two-tail is somewhere in Kumogakure – the Village Hidden in the Clouds. The exact details on its host are not yet known. Also, the rumors of a second Jinchuuriki in that village seem to be false."

The shadowed figure stepped back further from the table set up in the large, dark cave where the statue for extracting a tailed demon from its host and sealing it was being prepared. His partner set a folder on the table, with further information on what had been discovered.

"Excellent. A pity that our suspicions regarding the eight-tail's location seem to have been unfounded, though. It will be some time before the preparations will be complete for an extraction, regardless, which gives us more time. You may go."

The two Akatsuski members departed, leaving the Leader and his right hand operative alone to work.

O

"Achoo!"

Anko handed Sasuke a tissue and one of the cups of tea she had just poured. They were sitting on a hill overlooking the practice field where Iruka was teaching his review. Sasuke didn't quite trust Anko yet, and was more comfortable talking to her somewhere more out in the open, though he also had to be careful to not be overheard.

"Kiddo, a lot of Orochimaru's techniques are not something you want to be learning, trust me on that. But I can understand wanting to learn as much as you can from as many sources as possible. How about this? I'll go talk to your sensei, and if he's okay with it, I'll give you some supplementary lessons once or twice a week as long as you aren't on a mission."

"Thank you, Anko-san. I appreciate this. I didn't know what to expect when Yoko gave me your address, but ... it had to be better than what I'd been considering before. And if you even think of telling Naruto that I admitted to being wrong about something, I'll deny it, so don't even try."

"Sure, Sasuke-_chan_. Your secret's safe with me. Now… shit, kid, what's wrong?"

Sasuke didn't answer. His face contorted in pain as he clutched at his left shoulder with the opposite hand. The dark spirals of the curse seal were slowly creeping onto his neck and down his arm past the edge of his sleeve, despite the blocking seal Kakashi had placed during the Chuunin Exam.

O

_TBC…_

O

_A/N_: Yes, that's the end of the chapter. I know exactly what is going to happen next and have for quite some time, but a small part of why this chapter kept getting delayed is that I kept wanting to add another scene and then another, besides the fact that I've had very little time to write or inspiration except for when I've been the most busy. So I decided to end a chapter with a real cliffhanger for the first time in my amateur writing "career". I'm slightly proud of myself for writing one, to be honest. Heehee. And I'm going to try to get the next chapter up by the end of the month, since I'm taking a summer class for the duration of June plus a little bit into May and July. Best case scenario, I also want to write a chapter on the weekends during my class and post it around fourth of July. I know, I know, not gonna happen. But a girl can try, can't she? And I really want to have some sort of art for the series that I can shamelessly self-promote by the time I next update. 'Til next time, then!


End file.
